Scott Colom speaks as he provides an update on the status of the Senate race against Cindy Hyde-Smith on November 4, 2026 in Jackson, Mississippi.
Rogelio V. Solis/Getty Images North America
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Rogelio V. Solis/Getty Images North America
JACKSON, Miss. — When Scott Colom, a local prosecutor, announced his candidacy late last year, it seemed like a small deal in a ruby red state.
But in October of this year, a month before the votes poured in for him, he was confident.
“We didn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend — we did it by going door to door, festival to festival, gaining support,” Colom said at a canvassing event on the Mississippi coast. “We’re going to shock a lot of people, but I’m not going to be shocked. The people of Mississippi are behind this campaign: they understand the issues in Mississippi.”
Colom narrowly defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to a race call released Wednesday evening by the Associated Press, marking one of the most stunning upsets of this year’s midterm elections.
Flipping Red Counties with a Focus on Affordability
Colom won by less than five thousand votes, with a small fraction of the votes still to be counted.
While sweeping traditionally left-leaning areas of Mississippi, such as Hinds County, home to Jackson, the state capital, he also picked up places that have traditionally voted Republican, like Forrest County, where President Trump won in 2024 with around 58 percent of the vote.
Colom has served as the state’s 16th Judicial District attorney since 2016. This includes his hometown of Columbus, Mississippi, in Lowndes County – an area that also has a right-wing electoral base.
Colom campaigned on accessible health care, saving rural hospitals and affordability. He said working in a majority-Republican area highlighted the need for bipartisanship to resolve these issues.
“I thought the majority of Mississippians love our state more than they hate the Democratic Party or they love the Republican Party,” Colom said. “They want their kids to have good schools. … they want to be able to make sure that young people, if they want to stay in Mississippi, can have jobs. They want the hospitals to stay open.”
While Colom isn’t surprised his message resonated with voters this year, he faced obstacles when a federal judicial nomination was blocked in the U.S. Senate in 2023, when then-President Joe Biden. appointed him to a federal judgeship.
Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker has indicated he would support her nomination.
The junior state senator Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked it. She cited donations from billionaire philanthropist George Soros around Colom’s DA candidacy, which in 2023 Colom said were intended for an independent PAC — not his campaign.
She also said she opposed legislation to protect female athletes. in a statement provided to the Mississippi Free Press at the time.
In a letter to Hyde-SmithColom said he didn’t know what she was referring to and noted that he signed a statement saying he would not use law enforcement resources to criminalize doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
He also stated in the letter that if he were confirmed as a judge, none of his personal opinions would have any bearing on his “day job.” And he asked the senator reconsider – she didn’t.
Three years later, she defended her seat against him. She was sure on election night that she would beat him, telling her supporters, “I stopped Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you stopped him from being a U.S. senator.” »
Instead, she lost, and on Wednesday evening she released a statement acknowledging the race, saying she respected the decision of Mississippi voters.
A close victory which “made the difference”
Colom acknowledged that attention from national Democratic leaders and his party’s campaign funds came late this year, but he noted that it was the attention his campaign received from voters in the state that made the difference.
“They understand the power of their vote in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time, because if you look at those margins, everything that everyone did certainly made a difference,” Colom told reporters in Jackson just days before the election was called.
Being elected as a Democrat is no easy feat either. The last time Mississippi sent a Democrat in the Senate in 1982 and no incumbent president has been defeated since 1942.
Colom now also holds the distinction of being the first black state senator since Reconstruction.
It’s something he’s proud of – but not the laurels he rests on.
“My job is to be a senator that makes it easier for the next African American who has the work ethic, the vision, the values, and who wants to be a United States senator, to make it easier for them,” Colom said. “I’m a person who continues to show up in the community and answer the tough questions and explain my values, you know. And if I do that, it will be easier for the next person to be judged by their character and not by the color of their skin.”
If his victory is historic, his campaign has also made waves, particularly on social networks. In an interview with WLOX, Hyde-Smith responded to questions about beef affordability by suggesting people choose a different protein.
Colom fought back with a campaign ad, suggesting people choose another senator instead.
Eventually, the rest of the country began to listen. About two weeks before the election, the PAC joined forces with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer donated $1.2 million for advertising.
And several prominent Democrats also ended up joining Colom on the campaign trail: former VIce President Kamala Harrisold TTransportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegold President Bill Clinton and U.S. senator Raphael Warnock of Georgiajust to name a few.
Colom traveled the entire state – from the coast to the capital to the Tennessee border. While in the Mississippi Delta, he said that what he wanted to do while he was in the Senate would all come back home to Columbus.
“I’ve always been passionate about trying to make my community better, to make my city better, to make my state better, and that for me is the goal of running for U.S. Senate,” Colom said. “It’s a continuation of a service that runs in my family and I was raised (by) my community and my church to give back and that’s why I’m doing it right now.”
Tiara Jackson of Mississippi Public Broadcasting contributed to this report.
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